Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus

If Asustek seem to be producing a confusing quantity of nForce 6 series products right now, you wouldn’t be far from the truth. Although the Striker Extreme was incredibly feature rich, it is also seriously expensive, giving reason for many to look elsewhere for their Core 2 plus SLI experience.

The P5N32-E SLI Plus was released in relative incognito, in what seemed like Asus were trying to keep it under the radar. Why? Asus were using combinations of components from NVIDIA to create a cheaper, Frankenstein motherboard that uses an nForce 650i SLI northbridge paired with an nForce 590 SLI MCP southbridge used on AMD boards?

Asus is one of the few companies big enough, with enough purchasing and selling weight to actually make this feasible, which in contrary to normal market mechanisms actually benefits the consumer more by increasing choice.

Naturally, as a far cheaper alternative to the Striker, Asus has cut down on the frilly extras to provide a raw product. Of course, we found out if eau naturelle and a bolt of electricity provides a pleasurable experience. Oh yeah, and we tested the motherboard as well.

Box Contents

Four red SATA cables;

Two molex to four SATA cables;

Two USB 2.0 port PCI backplate;

One 6-pin Firewire port PCI backplate;

One black IDE cable;

One black floppy cable;

Driver CD and manual;

The compliment of extras is a bit thin, Asus giving you only four out of six SATA cables and only two extra USB ports out of the available six on-board. Considering SATA hard drive connectors have been on PSUs for at least three years, substituting the power connectors for SATA cables would have been a plus. Also, the Firewire and USB backplates are separate but could have easily been included on the same one saving PCI space. Whilst it’s unmistakably bare compared to the Striker bundle, the package fits the bill reasonably well, especially considering the "budget" orientation of the board. However, other products around a similar price do offer more comprehensive packages.